440 '48 Plymouth Coupe

[1946Austin]

Almost a month with no update fix for us! What's going on with the gasser?

[racingsnake440]

No those weren't the engine noises I was thinking of...

The Econoline brackets are probably a bit overkill but they should work ok and I think the seats are going to look right at home.

Not much visible progress today but I did cut the trans hump to clear the transmission and also cut some rust out ready to put a patch panel in. Also scraped some of the undercoating off the floor - yuck!

[1946Austin]

The Econoline buckets sure look period correct! Nice base to whittle on too!

[milner351]

NICE
Lordy those seat brackets are massive. Great work. Love this thing - even if it is a mopar, haha.

[SuperBuickGuy]

engine noises... last Mopar I heard when "vroom, vroom, clank clank clank".... were those the sounds?

[racingsnake440]

Decided it was time to get the driver's seat bolted in before I finalise the steering column mounting and pedal locations. I'm using Econoline bucket seats and decided the van mount would probably work with a bit of modification. Stock, it's too tall so I cut it down by just over 2". Need to do a bit more work on the back edge so everything fits back together nicely but that shouldn't be too hard. I'm probably going to holesaw the side of the mount to make it look a bit more 'racy'. Had to put the gas pedal in to see where it needed to go - looks like it should work out fine. And yes I did sit in it making engine noises once I was done!

[Beagle]

go man go... it's all progress. Thanks for taking the time to get pictures!

[racingsnake440]

I like simple too!

Not much done tonight, stripped the column shift guts out of the steering column and hooked it on to the steering shaft so I could double check I was happy with the column positioning. Also started cutting away at the transmission tunnel cover to make clearance for the back of the engine.

[Scott Liggett]

Thanks Scott!

Yeah, there's certainly going to be lots of finish welding to do once I've got the mock up stage completed - luckily the weather has cooled off so it'll quite pleasant doing that.

John, I use a combination of measuring, looking at other similar set ups and mocking things up so they can be cycled through their travel to try and make sure there's no problems. There's still the possibilty of missing something but it can always be modified later.

I've seen ugly butchered brackets before the boogered and splattered welds. I appreciate clean and simple.

[racingsnake440]

Nice looking mount.

Thanks Scott!

Yeah, there's certainly going to be lots of finish welding to do once I've got the mock up stage completed - luckily the weather has cooled off so it'll quite pleasant doing that.

John, I use a combination of measuring, looking at other similar set ups and mocking things up so they can be cycled through their travel to try and make sure there's no problems. There's still the possibilty of missing something but it can always be modified later.

[milner351]

Having never done this type of deal before - how do you make sure you're all set as far as suspension travel and steering sweep?

Seems like it would be easy for me to get weld happy and set myself up for an "oops" moment

[1946Austin]

Looks solid! You're gonna have a lot of welding to do once you've finished all the tacked in mounts!

[Scott Liggett]

Nice looking mount.

[racingsnake440]

Made a bit of progress tonight - tacked up a steering box mount so I could bolt the box on. Need to finish weld it all and put a sleeve in for the bolt that goes through the frame but it will do to hold things in position while I finalise the steering column mounts.

[racingsnake440]

Thanks guys! I think I'm going to line the seat up so the steering wheel is pretty much centred in front of you - you'll just sit a bit closer to the door. There's plenty of space, certainly more than an Austin!